God's People Must Be United and Growing in Holiness
1 Corinthians 13[1]
As preached at Rolling Hills Church on Sunday, June 24th, 2012
Love. We have certainly messed this word up. The word is used, in the ESV, 14 times in 1 Corinthians. Nine of those are in this chapter. And precisely none of those times would it come close to fitting into something someone falls into or out of, or sex, or what we might think of as love in USA 2012. Let's learn today that Love is the More Excellent Way.
Scriptures
1 Cor 12:31b And I will show you a still more excellent way.
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Message: Love is more excellent than spiritual gifting, faith, and hope.
V 1-3 Because gifting is nothing without love. Love is required in order to build the church! Without love, the very foundation is missing! It's like building a lighthouse and lavishly furnishing it, only to take a crane and stand it on sand – USELESS! It HAS to have a foundation for the very purpose to be fulfilled. Who cares how gifted we are and how efficient we can run if we have no love – we're useless, since love is God's
V 4-7 Because of the nature of love. This is a magnificent, timeless description. Even unbelievers enjoy reading this description of love. People read it at weddings, write it in beautiful script to each other, and put it on headstones where loved ones are buried. It is one of the most-read and well-known passages in the Bible. And it is a stern rebuke to a selfish, divisive bunch of people in an ungodly church. Just think about what this church has already been dressed down about in this book. He has rebuked them for being divisive, arrogant, boastful, and envious; for being unconcerned with holiness and very concerned with their place in line to eat: for being indifferent to the confusion and needs of others and very concerned with their own rights. So comes the rebuke in the "Love is not" list: Love is not "arrogant, rude, irritable, or resentful". Love does not "envy, boast, insist on its own way, or rejoice at wrongdoing." You know love? It is NOT like you. It does NOT lead people to do the things you are doing. LOVE is missing in you, and it is the more excellent way!
Love is "patient, kind". Love rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things." Paul is saying to Corinth: Love is not like you; love is like God!"
Love is not fickle, spoiled, selfish, and childish (when I was a child…)
Love is weathered, committed, enduring, and right.
So… Love is the more excellent way because gifting is nothing with out love, and because of the nature of love. Finally, love is the more excellent way…
V 8-10 Because of the permanence of love. While love is permanent; spiritual gifting is temporary. Spiritual gifting has a phase like evangelism; it is only temporary. Love is forever! This are two 'the partial will pass away' options.
1) When the Scriptures are complete. Many evangelical brothers and sisters believe this one, thinking Paul says here that tongues will cease when the Scripture is completed. Heb 1:1-2 supports this, they say. "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world."
Now there is a more thorough logic to their argument, but the gist is that God spoke miraculously through apostles, prophets, and tongues until He finished the Scriptures, at which time Revelation from God was complete – so no more miraculous messages. When you see the way, "God has said" has been abused, you more readily understand the desire to grab and hold this doctrinal perspective.
2) When the Lord comes back and we're all with Him. In this sense it seems that tongues, prophesies, and knowledge will be useless when we see all, know all, and are with the very God who has spoken in these mysterious ways before. Love won't pass away – we'll be with love! Love is eternal. We will have no need of revelation, since we're with him.
I take the second view, (which means I am a non-cessasionist, not believing they have ceased) because
a) Despite having the Scriptures, we still see dimly. Despite having a complete gospel, we still have an incomplete picture of God and His glory, and of how He will wrap things up and bring all this to a close!
b) 1 Corinthians 14 says, "Do not forbid speaking in tongues".
c) Finally, because I don't think the abuse of a gift necessitates God's disposal of the gift.
Now having said that, I am very skeptical of "revelatory messages" either through prophecies or tongues, but I cannot forbid the use of them and declare them gone. I rather choose to test them as we are taught to in the next chapter.
Love is more excellent that faith and hope simply because it lasts longer. We will not need faith to believe when we stand in His presence; we will believe, but it will be different.
We will not need hope when we are in the presence of all joy, love, power, wisdom, and righteousness – Jesus Christ, the One who is above all, and to be worshipped forever above all. Who alone is love and who alone gives love, lasting love, godly love.
Love is more excellent than gifting, faith, and hope. So are we a loving church family?
Did you find your love for other members of the body described in the what love is not and what it doesn't do?
Did you find your love for other members of this body described in the what love is and what it does do?
[1] All Scriptures, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (via E-Sword Software) © 2001 Crossway Publishing. All Rights Reserved. I paste them in red for distinction.
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